Charlie Rangel went on an angry rant recently about the danger of Republicans gaining an upper hand in civil government. On the campaign trail to support New York’s Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo, Rangel stirred up popular fear with some choice words about Cuomo’s Republican opponents:

We have to win. We have to be able to send a national message with Andrew Cuomo. And the thing is: Everything we believe in — everything we believe in — they hate. They don’t disagree — they hate! They think if you didn’t come from Europe 30 years ago, you didn’t even make it. Some of them believe that slavery isn’t over and they think they won the Civil War!

Everything we’re doing is God’s work: education, healthcare, affordable housing, [protecting against] discrimination, paying people the minimum wage.

It’s hard to say what most of this means actually. “If you didn’t come from Europe thirty years ago”? Who falls into that category? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Nope. That was over forty-six years ago. So… who is Rangel talking about exactly?

That’s kind of the question isn’t it? He says “they” a lot, and one assumes he is talking about Republicans. But which of the Republicans act like there are still slaves? Okay. Which ones act like “they” won the Civil War (whatever that means)? I guess Northern Republicans are allowed to act like they won the Civil War. Since they did. And wasn’t Lincoln a Republican? Oh yeah. So Republicans kind of did win the Civil War. What in the universe is Rangel talking about?

It’s hard to say. He’s not really making sense. He’s just scaring people with baseless claims and fearmongering. And I know we’ve grown used to these kinds of tactics. But am I allowed to say that I’ve also grown tired of these kinds of tactics? Rangel and his Democrat friends really need to come up with some factual and actual gripes about their opponents. Because this is just sad. But you know what is even sadder? Democrat voters actually fall for this rubbish.